We posted an entry last year about an upcoming Game of Thrones social game that was in the works from start-up Disruptor Beam. Well, the Disruptor Beam team has been toiling away over the past year and the fruit of their labor is now live and available for you to play on Facebook.

This is not only the first social game based on the events and characters in A Song of Ice and Fire, but it gives fans an opportunity to live the life of a noble within the world of Westeros – something that you don’t necessarily get to do by just watching the television. From what Disruptor Beam tells me, as a player you make political, military and economic decisions that impact others, as well as the game’s overall storyline.

We've seen the game for demonstrated here at the office and, without knowing that much about social games or Facebook, I can see that the Disruptor Beam team has put great effort into creating an immersive Game of Thrones experience. Players claim their birthright by choosing which of the Great Houses they’ll swear allegiance to, select their lineage, secure their holdings, develop their lands and reputation, and assign sworn swords to quests, while forging alliances.

We were given tons of custom artwork and dialog text to approve (The game is huge, I went through approvals on inventory lists that were infinity long), so Radoff and company seemed to care a great deal about getting the details right.

Comments

First off, I would like to let you know that I have the ultimate respect for you and your books. I have waited countless hours, days, months and years for you to deliver more pages for us to enjoy. Did I mind...no, It was worth the wait. The thing taht I dislike and cannot forgive is not the time it takes for you to write (I am patient), not the silence in between (no more updates on progress-I understand that must get tough), but the SELLING OUT and signing any contract for ANY sub-par game, app, etc etc etc. Please appreciate what you have created enough not to be greedy and take money just because it's dangling in front of your face. Some people will hate this post and some will agree(If it is left up by the MOD). I still respect you George, but please protect what you have created.

Look at the other replies to this message. Lots of people seem to be liking this game, and it is still only in beta. The whole purpose of beta is to find bugs and flaws and make the game better. Maybe that's what you should be doing, too.

In the age we live in, subsidiary rights and merchandising are an important source of income for any writer or IP creator.

The game is not sub-par, and does a nice job of following the story line from the books. I've been following the books since 2005 and am so pleased at the success you have found. As a librarian, I know it is only good for our society when authors achieve this sort of fame, and I could not be happier that it happened to one of my favorites!

I don't know about the FB game - it's on Facebook so I won't be playing it - but the last two computer games were indeed really sub-par, so you'll have to excuse people (unfairly, perhaps) pre-judging.

AGOT-Genesis (the real-time strategy game) scores 53/100 on Steam's Metascore review and it's been impossible to find anyone to play against since about a month after the last update. (October. 2011). The AGOT RPG of last year scores 58/100.

The annoying thing is that the gamer fanbase tried really hard to get Cyanide to improve the RTS game, but they wouldn't take on board any suggestions. Like naming castles, or towns, or NPCs, for example. Or even being able to play a campaign set in the same era as the book! It was very much a case of cashing in on the franchise, and to be honest, George, when the books and the TV series are so wonderful and the fans have invested in the world you've made, seeing it hawked to us by a "throw something together, the fans'll buy it!" outfit like Cyanide is disappointing.

oh whatever this man deserves every offer that is madeTotallyBut George is not some sort of absentee landlord. He has exceptionally strong control (relatively!) and high standards. It will be especially difficult for the corporate overlords to use his name for crap.

And I do indeed try to exercise some kind of quality control over every product with my name attached. FWIW, I must turn down five offers for every one I accept.

That being said, there are some areas where I simply have to trust my partners. My expertise is limited, and so are the number of hours in the day. In many cases, the best you can do is try and partner with the best people you can find, and put themselves in their hands.

I think we've done that with Jon Radoff and his team at Disruptor Beam. I have every confidence that these bugs and glitches people are reporting will be working out. That's the whole purpose of beta-testing as I understand it, after all.